Success in all the Right Places

It's taken me about a week to get around to writing this post but I knew as soon as my last exam result was out that it was going to happen. Why the delay then? Well firstly I thought I should let the dust settle after what had been an arduous period of waiting for everyone. Secondly I didn't want to come across as being someone who brags about their results as soon as they got them through. Yes, you got it, I'm going to spout for 5 or more paragraphs about how happy I am with my results and be under no illusion that I couldn't be prouder of myself just now. Gloating? Probably to an extent but everyone that I study with has had some time to digest their results so why shouldn't I get to talk about mine?

A Look at Love

Today I have been unsettled. I occasionally sit myself down to watch a film that I know is going to skew my head for a couple of hours and this post comes off the back of such a film. I'm a huge Ian McEwan fan - something that my Dad is mainly responsible for. A couple of his books are amongst my favourites - I even wrote my first critical analysis on his best book (in my humble opinion) 'Saturday'. This morning I decided that I would watch the adaptation of 'Enduring Love' starring Daniel Craig. Admittedly I've not actually read the novel but the DVD has been in the house for as long as I can remember and I finally decided that I would see what it was like. A deeply unsettling film about love and obsession, it has got me thinking about the question of love and what that actually means to me. A brief exploration into my head is sure to follow here - apologies are in the post.

Football = Time Consuming

It dawned on me today that I've not actually put out any content for over a week and I thought that I should maybe do something to rectify that. A video was all I had time for this evening and therefore you are stuck with looking at me again instead of just reading - super news for most I'm sure! Here is said video which includes a cut-off head, a lack of structure and a lack of explanation as to why I was showering at 4.30 in the afternoon. I was running, just in case you are interested...

For those of you that store any of the information that I sometimes write in this blog, you will remember that I said something about art last week or the week before, I forget. I'm looking to redesign my logo because it is pretty rubbish and I was hoping that the more artistic amongst you might have an idea at least of what it should look like. Any suggestions/ideas (make them on the Facebook page please!) would be much appreciated and I look forward to hearing back from my artistically superior readers in the near future!

Thanks.

Martin  

A Look Back on the Jubilee

I risk becoming something of a social commentator if I keep on going like this. Not that this would such a bad thing because, after all, it might be that I better myself in such a role. My posts over the last 6 months have wavered between inane teenage angst and stiff social/political comment - I feel like the latter might be of more interest to the masses. Anyway, and speaking of masses, today saw the end of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations and left me with a lot of think and write about. This might just be the start of something new for me as I look to find a quasi-genre for a blog that is otherwise lacking in such. This evening I feel more like a Brit than I have done in my 10 or so years of social consciousness and it feels nice. At the start of the weekend the sight of the Union Jack would make me slightly queasy but now it invokes in me a feeling of, dare I say, pride.

Diamond Jubilee in the Rough - A Look at the Monarchy

It takes a long time in a short life for you to be able to make your mind up about big things. Take politics for example. You spend your adolescent years either not watching the news or at least not watching until the sports section comes on - that might just be me though - not really paying attention to anything that happens in the world around you. Why do you need to at that age? Let the grown-ups deal with that whilst you find new things to make out of old bits of cardboard or undertake the more important task of training up your Pokemon. It's not until young people hit their teens that they start to notice 'important things'. It's fascinating to look back at the period of your lifetime and the things that were happening in the world that you were blissfully unaware of. Politics might not be a great example because we all take to that in different ways (and at different times) but this weekend brings fresh opportunity to explore the nation's relationship with the Monarchy. As the Queen gets set to strap herself into a golden life-jacket this afternoon I ask you this: what does the Monarchy mean to you?

An Update in Person

It was a nice feeling sitting down to make this video because the last time I made one I was taking a break from revision and other such (less than) fun things. My old habits of moving around are still there and I like to look out of the window a lot but I think they are getting better. See what you think for yourself...

Well there you go. Any feedback on these videos is much appreciated as always! I'm looking to do something interesting over the next couple of weeks which might be of interest to the artists amongst you - keep an eye on the Facebook page and future posts for more information.

Martin

Freedom

Yes, the title to this post is cliche but it is the word on everyone's lips at the moment. After a gruelling 4 week exam diet, I can finally say that I am free. As well as being happy for myself I'm also delighted for the people that sat those exams alongside me because I know what they have been going through for the last couple of months - really pleased for everyone. I'm also happy that they're done for my parent's sake as well. I don't think I'll ever quite grasp what it's like for them when I've got exams but I think they go through the wringer as well. Not only do I spent a lot of time being anxious and hard on myself (which I know they don't like), they also just want me to do well and to be successful. They never put pressure on me in any way but it is the pressure that I place on myself to do well that is the biggest thing for me - I don't just want to do well for myself, I want to do well for them as well.

Back to the Start

I thought that I would be able to save myself until the end of next week before I dusted down my blog again but I can't keep myself away. I've been typing notes for the best part of 10 hours today and yet my fingers still want more. My back might well say 'no', but my fingers say 'go' - who am I to ignore fingers that can think and talk for themselves? They've got me into plenty of trouble in the past so I've learned to embrace them and go with the flow - there's little point in fighting the feeling any longer. So with that gripping (yes, I just punned) story under my belt I guess it's time to crack on with something substantial. I'm not 100% sure where this post is going to go (which tends to happen when my brain is mush) but I like the feeling of writing something that isn't for revision purposes. However, knowing me, by the end of this post I will have told you all you need to know about the Scots law of leases - I'll try my damnedest not to though!

My Exam Stress Avoidance Techniques

With another 2 down and only 3 more to go, it's safe to say I realise why I was looking forward to this day right from the start of the exams. I've now got a whole week to get myself ready for my next one and to start making noises towards the other 2 so I'm pretty happy as I sit here just now with a nice cup of green tea. I think I answered pretty well today and Tuesday's performance is near enough impossible to comment on so they can both be left in my past along with that up and down week I had last week. If today has taught me anything at all then that is that all of the work that I've done this year and all of the exam preparation I've been doing for the last 5 weeks has been good for me and it's nice when you feel hard work paying off. Whether I'll be able to cite such a positive message to you when the results come out in the summer is a different question all together. Current feeling? Going almost as well as I could have hoped.

Still Alive

Knock, knock! Anyone out there!? You'll all be glad to know that I'm still here and I've not lost the ability to blog - who groaned at the back of the room there? After over 2 weeks of radio silence I return briefly this evening to make you smile (hopefully) and to make myself feel good about writing again. I'm not going to lie, these last few weeks have been pretty heavy going. I've done almost nothing but revise, a big part of which has been typing notes. I'm now well into the tens of thousands in terms of words typed for notes and not a word has been spilt since on anything jocular or with any of the usual innuendo or irony that I love to see dripping from my writing like too much chocolate sauce on your ice-cream. I've missed this thing more than ever over these last few weeks because of the (more often than not) dense amount of work that I've got to do for my exams. In short, it's nice to be back!